High Flying Birds 8 ( 2011 )
Everybody's on the Run / Dream On / If I Had a Gun... / The Death of You and Me / (I Wanna Live in a Dream in My) Record Machine / AKA... What a Life! / Soldier Boys and Jesus Freaks / AKA... Broken Arrow / (Stranded On) The Wrong Beach / Stop the Clocks

Noel Gallagher has taken three years to release 'Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds' and will soon put together a more dance oriented, collaborative set expected to appear sometime during 2012. A couple of the songs on 'High Flying Birds date back years, to the 'Oasis' era, of course. 'Stop The Clocks' gave it's name to an Oasis compilation and (I Wanna Live In A Dream In My) Record Machine' has also been patiently awaiting a place on an official album. Apparently Liam never got around to recording a vocal for 'Record Machine' or it would have been present on the final Oasis studio album, 'Dig Out Your Soul'. The crux of the matter therefore is this, Noel himself has apparently admitted many of these songs were written during the latter days of Oasis. For any fans expecting reassuring Oasis flavours to shine is, therefore, entirely justified whilst music critics anticipating Gallagher to bravely reinvent his own wheel are likely to walk away rather grumpily accusing Noel of playing it safe. A spot of light for such critics are that a couple of these songs do arguably foreshadow future Noel Gallagher directions, namely the 2nd single 'AKA...What A Life!' and '(Stranded On) The Wrong Beach'. We've experienced Noel collaborating with electronic artists in the past, namely Chemical Brothers. At which point does such a collaboration lead to Noel simply being a guest vocalist on someone else's song? I hope when the Amorphous Androgynous songs are released that Noel is a dominant partner within both the song constructions and arrangements.

A trombone appears unexpectedly during the Kinks flavoured 'Soldier Boys and Jesus Freaks' and Noel appears to be in fine singing voice. First single 'The Death Of You And Me' again is Kinks flavoured and will please those that liked 'The Importance Of Being Idle' by Oasis, also penned by Noel. 'The Death Of You And Me' peaked at number fifteen in the UK singles charts, already achieving something Beady Eye haven't, eg, a hit single. 'Stranded On The Wrong Beach' has almost glam-rock drums, Noel is "sinking in the quicksand.... come and rescue me" he pleads, whilst the musical backing is rich, wonderfully arranged and with that rarest of Gallagher traits, a prominent bass line. 'AKA What A Life', another UK hit peaking at number twenty, has more funky purring from a powerful and energetic rhythm section, propelling the entire song along excitingly. I'd not be at all surprised if Chemical Brothers aren't re-mixing 'What A Life'' for the dance floors as we speak, the song just begs for that sort of treatment. Album opener 'Everybody's On The Run' sports a 24 piece orchestra, vaguely pyschedlic feels from the rhythm section, Piano, Noel's acoustic. It's a full-blown and ambitious sounding track that perhaps tried a little too hard in places to dress up a fairly simple tune into that of brit-pop era world-beater. 'If I Had A Gun' comes across too much like a latter period Oasis plodder, but you didn't expect me to like everything here, did you?

Whilst the 'Beady Eye' album sometimes was a little too raw and exciteable with the guitars searing across everything, Noel's album is occasionallytoo polite in terms of the guitar sound, the brief wig-out at the end of 'Stop The Clocks' being an exception. Still, this is a very strong solo set, particularly if you compare it to other apparent Britpop survivors such as Richard Ashcroft (The Verve) and Jarvis Cocker (Pulp).